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Dirty Waste Disposal in Guangxi
A ship loaded with 400 tons of urban domestic waste from across Dongguan was caught dumping its load into the Xunjiang River in Teng County of Guangxi Province. The county had to halt the water supply for a few hours during cleanup. On September 3 around 9 pm, Teng County government received reports from villagers stating that a ship was docked at an isolated island on the Xunjiang River and was dumping an unknown waste into the river. The government informed public security bureau, environmental protection bureau and other related departments who arrived at the site and stopped the violation. By then, at least 10 tons of garbage had been released. Five people were in the boat and all of them are Teng County residents. According to them, the waste was shipped from Chang’an, Dongguan for disposal. The location sits upstream on the Pearl River and belongs to a protected zone as a drinking water source supplying Teng County. Before the waste was identified, county officials had stopped the water supply on September 4 around 9 am. By 4 pm on the same day, tests showed that water quality hadn’t been polluted and supply was resumed soon after. The five workers were arrested and remain in criminal detention. (Via news.163.com)

Phone Made In Dongguan Saves Man’s Life
A 41-year-old man in Cape Town was robbed and shot in the chest, but survived thanks to his Huawei phone that blocked the bullet from going through his heart. On August 27, businessman Siraaj Abrahams was attacked by two muggers when he parked his car in front of his house after a party. One of the assailants shot him from two meters away when the bullet hit his upper shirt pocket where his Huawei phone was stowed. The metal shell of the phone stopped the bullet, but Siraaj fell into a coma. The thieves thought he was dead and took 300 rand (roughly 144 RMB) from him. Later, his daughter and neighbor brought him to hospital. Except for a small wound on his chest, he was totally fine. The Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa office was so impressed with the story, they gave Siraaj a brand new phone and treated him to lunch. The story was first reported in Cape Town local media, then shared by Huawei and other media. The phone was reportedly assembled in Dongguan. (Via news.timedg.com, chinanews.com)

Biggest Tunnel in World Built in DG
On September 20, construction on the most difficult part of the Dongguan-Foshan Intercity railway, the underwater tunnel of Shizi Channel, was started in Panyu. Claimed to be the world’s largest tunnel, it will connect Dongguan’s Machong and Panyu’s Lianhua via a 4,900-meter passage under the river. Planned to open by the end of 2019, this line will shorten the travel time between Guangzhou and Dongguan to 15 minutes. Using a machine that’s nearly 5 stories long and 14 meters in diameter, the line is designed to be in a single tunnel with two lanes, which will save a lot of complexity compared to the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen high-speed railway with two tunnels. The Dongguan-Foshan line will start at the Wanghong Stop in Wangniuduan, go through Machong and Panyu and end at Guangzhou South. (Via oeeee.com, Dongguan Daily)

Phishing Website Raided
In September, Chang’an police cracked down on a group that used deceptive phishing tactics, having taken over 6 million RMB from at least 1,000 people. Over 400 police had been sent to Hunan, Jiangsu, Guangxi and Hainan, arresting 14 suspects and discovering 194 fraud cases. The website tricked users into buying fake flight tickets and using paid advertisements on search engines. After purchasing, but unable to collect the tickets, customers called a fake hotline only to be further deceived. Victims were located in 10 provinces from around the country. (Via news.timedg.com)

Neat Freak Quits School
A first-year middle school student dropped out of school because he thought the school was too dirty. The 13-year-old boy was unwilling to go back to his boarding school after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. This was the first time that the boy had to stay at school and he claimed the bed, toilet, shower were all too filthy to touch. He had been continuously aggravated by everything he needed to touch at the school. Each time when he was depressed, he would wash his hands for 20 minutes to recover and his parents felt helpless about his compulsion. After dropping out of school, the parents have hired tutors to teach him at home. The head of the Psychology Department at Dongguan Third People’s Hospital, Dr. Hu Qingju, claimed that these are the typical symptoms of an OCD patient which requires the patient and the family to deal with the illness together. (Via sun0769.com)

New Industrial Park Coming to Songshan Lake
Coolpad, one of the leading domestic smartphone companies in Dongguan, is planning to build a new industrial park at Songshan Lake where it will also move its global research center. On September 20, a ground breaking ceremony was held at the location on Xincheng Ave. Bringing 660,000 sq. meters in total, the first phase is expected to open in 2018 and will cover over one third of the land. The park will be composed of office towers, a technology researching center, a headquarter and incubators with a total capacity for 400 enterprises. On the same day, 18 companies had signed contracts and another 12 had signed joining intentions. The park will focus on intelligent technology and the whole industrial chain of Coolpad will include new product research, ordering capacity and manufacturing. Exhibition, logistics and sales will also be conducted at the park. At least 100 Coolpad suppliers in the industrial chain are anticipated to join the park. (Via epaper.oeeee.com)

Are Dongguan Residents Happy?
In September, annual research results done by State Statistics Bureau Dongguan Research Team were released for the third year in a row to reveal over 70 percent of residents are pretty happy. There were 5,700 valid samples received from residents aged 22 to 51, who have lived in Dongguan at least one year, from 198 villages throughout Dongguan’s 32 towns and districts and Songshan Lake. According to the research standards, over 75 points is regarded “pretty happy.” During the first half of 2016, residents from 23 towns scored above 75 points and 20 of them surpassed 80 points. The average happiness index for Dongguan in 2016 reached an average of 79.5 points, increasing successively in the three years testing. (Via news.focus.cn)